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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Who Surrended In This Cyber Battle?

I am not a cyber expert, so take this with a grain of salt and consult Brandon Valeriano.

But anyone who says anything about the US submitting to North Korean blackmail (or whoever) seems to be making a fundamental mistake--Sony and the movie theater chains are not the US government nor do they represent the American people.

Maybe it is my twitter feed, but I have seen no one ... NO ONE... saying that yanking The Interview and then Team America out of the movie theaters is a good idea. Media corporations often show very little courage when faced with pressure, so the Sony, Paramount, and the movie chains caved quickly. That should not be that surprising given behavior in the past.

But these are private actors, and thus far we have had no evidence that the US government told them to dodge, duck, dive, dip or dodge. The US government has few options in its dealings with North Korea precisely because North Korea is a very isolated country by its own choice. So, how do you sanction someone with which you have little/no trade? There are no bank accounts to freeze. And the US is already putting whatever pressure it can on North Korea to address other issues--its various aggressions towards South Korea, its missile and nuclear weapons programs, its role in the proliferation of these systems, etc.

We can hate what has happened, but the appeasement, the surrender to blackmail, this was not government policy. We can find things wrong with the US stance on this or that, but this is corporate cowardice. Point the finger where it belongs.

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Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.